TUTENKHAN-RA
"You think I care how you judge my actions? I predate your country's shallow moral code; have watched it shift and change to serve petty goals as the arcs passed. Walk through five hundred arcs of pain and destruction, then see how much of your vaunted morality remains."
Overview
Tutenkhan-Ra, better known by his moniker "The Nemesis" is the oldest and one of the most accomplished necromancers in Idalos' history. He was the one who discovered how to trap souls within wells and use them to create powerful thralls; the first mage to achieve revelation; and a king whose mighty kingdom cast a shadow over every corner of the world for over 500 arcs. The scars of his tyranny still haunt the world over 200 arcs after his death, and the stories of the horror inflicted upon his subjects and enemies during his reign have become whispered legends passed down to frighten children into behaving. Yet even those who detest his many terrible deeds cannot help but marvel at the cunning, ambition and sheer force of will he possessed. He may be gone now, but the stain of his impact on human history will be remembered in some form until the ends of time.
History
Tutenkhan-Ra was born to the second ever generation of humanity: the children born from the first humans who emerged after the war of the Immortals. Nothing is known of his early life, only that as a man he was initiated by the very first human to come into possession of the necromancy spark. Driven by a purpose known only to him, Tutenkhan-Ra devoted his entire life to the mastery of the spark, eschewing the blooming first beginnings of civilization in favour of isolation in which to research his powers in peace. Years of the company of his apprentices and the influence of his spark drained the humanity from his body, turning him into a cold, withered husk of a man that needed no rest, food or water, but his dedication to the work allowed him to bring necromancy to a whole new level. He was the first to discover the power to trap souls within wells, and using them was able to make thralls more powerful than any other seen even to this day. However it was not until he was an old, infirm man that Tutenkhan-Ra reached the ultimate height of necromancy and became one with his spark, undergoing the very first revelation and becoming a lich. It was from this point onward that he began to refer to himself as The Nemesis. He raised an army of undead, conquered and enslaved an island north of Melrath, then created his first kingdom: Necropolis-Khan.
After revealing, Tutenkhan-Ra developed a unique ideology. He believed that the splinters of his spark he'd passed down into his apprentices were the children of his very soul, and therefor his apprentices were more his heirs than any children of flesh and blood. He created what he called his 'Dynasty': his apprentices became 1st generation viziers, their apprentices 2nd generation viziers, their apprentices 3rd generation, and so on and so forth down the lines of his strange family tree. If a vizier were to die, be exiled or defect then their most powerful apprentice would step up a generation and replace them. Their word was as law within his kingdom, and the only ones they had to obey were those of a higher generation than them or The Nemesis himself. However only his six 1st generation viziers were allowed to reside permanently with him within Necropolis-Khan: the rest were given ships and armies upon receiving their witchmarks and sent out across Idalos to establish their own colonies, each bearing the name of Necropolis at the front and none anywhere near each other. There is a lot of debate among historians about why he chose to do this, but most believe it was to limit the political infighting inside his dynasty and stop his viziers from constantly trying to usurp each other. Whatever the reasons though the taxes and exotic goods sent by the colonies made Necropolis-Khan a prosperous city, even though the vast majority of its wealth was owned by The Nemesis' Dynasty.
However there was a major flaw with the expansion of The Nemesis' Empire. As practically every colony was formed through conquest by an undead army the other growing kingdoms around despised them, and since they were built so far from each other there was no chance of allies coming when those other kingdoms attacked. Those that were not wiped out by enemies eventually fell to rebellions as most of the people lived as slaves, or were destroyed when the ruling vizier's control of their thralls slipped and their undead soldiers massacred every living thing in sight. Most colonies barely made it past ten arcs, and even those ruled by truly talented viziers never made it past fifty. Even the original Necropolis-Khan was not exempt, for it was destroyed in a rebellion started by servants of Famula in arc 113, forcing The Nemesis to move his capital city to another more prosperous colony in what would be the first of a long line of pseudo-capitals.
Sustainable or not, The Nemesis' Empire plagued Idalos until arc 512 when the hero Aurélie LaCroix, a champion of Famula and master swordswoman, led an alliance of all the kingdoms that had suffered at Tutenkhan-Ra's hands against Necropolis-Requies, the final capital. The slaves rose up to fight with them, and as the battle consumed the city Aurélie stormed the palace and engaged The Nemesis in a one-on-one duel. The exact details of what occurred are unclear, but Aurélie emerged later, announcing that The Nemesis had been destroyed and banished to the world of the spirits forever. Without him to lead them the other colonies collapsed and fell into ruin, and the threat of The Nemesis' Empire vanished for good.
Beliefs
In order to understand his beliefs one must remember that the Idalos Tutenkhan-Ra was born into was a much harsher world. The desolation wrought by the war of the Immortals was still fresh, and mankind had yet to form civilizations or develop cultures and traditions. Humanity was pitifully weak, unable to aspire for anything greater than to survive the next trial. When Tutenkhan-Ra met the first necromancer and saw the power he wielded it gave him hope for the very first time; hope that human-kind could become masters of the world that seemed to try so hard to kill them. To him the spark of necromancy seemed like a god. As a mortal he worshiped it to the point of obsession, and after revealing declared himself the incarnation of the spark's will on Idalos.
He forced his arcanetheistic beliefs onto the subjects of his empire, having them build monuments to him and worship his viziers like demi-gods. It should be noted that while he treated his viziers like royalty and genuinely seemed to love them as his children, what he truly loved was the necromancy sparks residing inside them. The viziers were just the vessels of the spark, and were expected to act in their sparks best interests above all else. For this reason all other magical sparks were considered inherently evil and outlawed from his empire on pain of death, for fear that someone might try to infect one of his viziers with a rival spark.
Speaking of gods The Nemesis was remarkably uncaring for the Immortals. That is not to say that he hated them (except for Famula, who he loathed with a passion) but other than the odd deal over the arcs he was determined to keep out of their affairs.
Legacy
Although he is gone The Nemesis' name is still whispered like a dark curse for good reason, for the scars he left on Idalos can still be felt by the living to this day. He features as the villain in the stories of a hundred different heroes, and in a hundred more stories mothers tell their children about how monsters came into existence or what will happen to them if they don't do their chores. He is synonymous with the image of an evil king, and just about as many myths as truths exist about what occurred under his reign, making it hard to tell truth from fiction.
The most tangible remnant of his rule is the ruins of the necropolis' left behind after his empire collapsed. Promises of the treasures and secrets hidden within them attract many treasure hunters and archaeologists, but these ruins still contain pockets of welled thralls left to roam free and kill any living thing that trespasses. Less tangible though is the reputation he built for necromancers, one of the many reasons they are feared and reviled by most. As one of the first necromancers, and one who heavily encouraged his apprentices to continue his spark's lineage, is it believed that roughly a quarter of all necromancy sparks are directly descended from his own, making them unofficial members of his dynasty. Few know or care about this heritage, but there are a handful descended from the viziers that survived the falls of their necropolis' who honour his legacy. Some seek to emulate him and become his second coming; some perform dark rituals in the hopes of summoning his soul back from the dead; and some travel across Idalos searching for him, refusing to believe that their lord is truly gone. Whether there is any truth in their beliefs none can say, but there are rumors of a dark wind starting to blow once more from the necropolis'. Something has been stirring in those ruins since the time of prophecies arrived. The question is... what?
